Alice in Adaptation: Disney's Re-Imagination of Lewis Carroll's Victorian Girl Child'

Alice in Wonderland has been adapted to films, board games, songs, video games, etc.

Many of the adaptations have only a tenuous relationship to the original novels.

Disney's 1951 Alice in Wonderland film actually uses some characters from Through the Looking Glass. The Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland film can either be considered an adaptation or a sequel.

The Disney version is considered the 'innocent' one.

The Tim Burton version is more adult-oriented. For example, Alice turns down a proposal of marriage. The film also uses dark graphics and monsters.

Carroll's books broke tradition with Victorian children's literature which was highly moralistic. Girl children in such books were just as side characters to a young boy. Girl children in the books were almost angelic in nature.

Alice often offends Wonderland creatures, particularly earlier on in the story. She can be nasty about other children she knows. She can be frank and rude.

The writer talks about the pigeon, Alice's long neck and how someone considers this related to the original sin of Eve.

Wonderland seems to change often which is a challenge for Alice. Bad behavior in Wonderland doesn't seem to be punished.

Disney establishes Alice as a Victorian child. In the Disney film she has a specific goal: to reach home. In the original novel she tends to just walk around, running into new situations and dealing with them.

The talking doorknob in the Disney film is not in the original story.Alice is weaker and more passive in the Disney film than in the novel. She keeps talking about wanting to go home in the Disney film but not in the novel.

She's not as rude or offensive to other creatures as she is in the novel.

Alice remains an outsider in the Disney film but becomes more assimilated in the Tim Burton film.

One reason for considering Tim Burton's version is that Alice is a young adult. There is a goal-oriented plot but it involves Alice killing the Jabberwock, not just wanting to get home.

Alice is new to Wonderland in the Disney film but in the other film the creatures there recognize her (and debate if she is 'the' Alice.) She has a specific destiny to fulfill.

In the Disney film Alice responds the way she was taught to but in the Burton film an older Alice has much different responses.

The Tim Burton Alice does a lot of independent thinking.

In the Disney film the creatures are no where near as threatening as they are in the Tim Burton film.

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